GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The off-season got underway for Oregon State's baseball team following Sunday's second loss at the NCAA Tournament's Gainesville Regional, but Beavers coach Pat Casey doesn't yet know how many holes he will need to fill.

Seniors Rob Folsom and Adalberto Santos have exhausted their eligibility, creating two vacancies in the Beavers' starting outfield.

Jim Beseda, The OregonianOSU coach Pat Casey helped guide the Beavers to the postseason for the fifth time in six years.Beyond that, Casey will have to wait to see how many of his 18 draft-eligible underclassmen get picked in this week's Major League Baseball first-year player draft and decide to sign contracts, foregoing their senior seasons.

"We know areas that we want to get better in and we have to get better in," Casey said after Sunday's 11-7 loss to Florida Atlantic ended the Beavers' 2010 season at 32-24.

"I'm sure the staff will be getting together here as soon as we return and start laying out the game plan for how we hope to improve," Casey said. "We'll look at every aspect of the game and whatever we've got to do to get better, we're going to do it."

The consensus is that several junior pitchers are on the verge of jumping to the pro ranks if they get drafted high enough and get commensurate offers. The top prospects include right-handers Greg Peavey, Kevin Rhoderick and Tyler Waldron, and left-handers Tanner Robles and Kraig Sitton.

"There's 32 Major League clubs, and all it takes is one club to like somebody," Casey said. "You look in the big leagues right now, the kids that are pitching in the big leagues are getting there in a hurry, and most of them are all guys who went to college."

One of the biggest question marks has to do with junior third baseman Stefen Romero, this season's team leader in home runs and RBIs.

Romero appeared poised to turn pro before suffering a fractured right forearm in the final week of the regular season.

"I don't know how that will affect his draft status," Casey said. "If the injury puts Stefen in a position where he doesn't feel like it's the right opportunity, I hope he's comfortable coming back here and doing what Santos did -- playing as a senior, raising his stock, and improving his ability to play at the next level.

"That's up to Stefen. Right now is not a good time to speculate."

In the aftermath of Sunday's loss, Casey said this season was a success, even though the Beavers fell short of their goal -- reaching the College World Series for the first time since 2007 when they won the second of their back-to-back national championships.

The Beavers went 16-3 to open the season and spent the first nine weeks ranked among Baseball America's top 25, peaking at No. 17 despite the loss of pitchers Josh Osich and Taylor Starr to preseason injuries.

The team then went into a tailspin following a 3-1 loss in 16 innings to UCLA on April 10 in Corvallis. The Beavers lost 11 of 12 games during the skid, dropping consecutive Pacific-10 Conference series to UCLA, Stanford, Washington State and California, and putting their NCAA Tournament hopes in doubt.

The Beavers closed the regular season winning 10 of 15 games and reached the postseason for the fifth time in six years. They also were sent 3,000 miles to a regional hosted by the University of Florida and featuring two other teams -- Bethune-Cookman and Florida Atlantic -- from Florida.

"As a staff, we tried to stress to the kids all year long that it's not how you start, it's how you finish," pitching coach Nate Yeskie said. "You're going to deal with some rough patches and our guys kept battling and kept battling and they dug themselves out of the hole that they put themselves in."

After a 6-4 victory over Florida Atlantic in Friday’s regional opener, the Beavers lost their next two games, falling 10-2 to Florida Saturday and 11-7 to FAU Sunday.

"We won our first game, but then who would have guessed that (Saturday's starter) Sam Gaviglio would have a bad start?" Casey said. "It's pretty tough to win games when two of your starters can't get you into the fourth or fifth inning, especially in a tournament when you have to be cognizant of the next game. So, that part was difficult.

"We ended up battling through the injuries, the adversity, and the bad run we had, and we ended up third in the conference in RPI and came to a regional. I wish we had played better baseball here."

The playing conditions also were a challenge for the Beavers, with temperatures all three days in the upper 80s to low 90s and accompanied by high humidity. Thunderstorms also were a factor during all three games involving OSU, forcing four delays that totaled 6 hours, 25 minutes.

"The best way to describe it is just like a roller coaster," Santos said of the season as a whole. "We had our ups and downs, and we fought a good battle, but as in every sport, only one team can win."